Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews on C5 dramatises headline-grabbing murder investigation into 'traumatic' road-rage death
She went from "traumatised witness" to prime suspect...
Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews is a “gripping” dramatisation of a true crime that lives on in our memory as one of the most shocking in recent history.
This follows on from Under Suspicion: Kate McCann, the first-ever drama about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, which aired on Channel 5 in May 2026.
While Kate McCann came under suspicion but was never charged for any wrongdoing, the second in the series focuses on a woman who was charged and sentenced for the crime. Tracie Andrews.
Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming 90-minute Channel 5 film Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews, and the real life story that inspired it.
What is Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews on Channel 5 about?
Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews is a “tense psychological crime thriller” which dramatises one of the most shocking true crimes of the past 30 years. In fact, this December will mark 30 years since the crime dominated every newspaper headline in the country.
The feature-length film “immerses viewers in the pivotal hours of the murder investigation”. It charts Tracie’s transformation from “traumatised witness” to prime suspect.
The original drama is told through first‑hand accounts, police records and reconstructed memories. Channel 5 tells us: “Tracie Andrews always dreamt of being famous. Then her dream became a nightmare.”
What did she do?
In December 1996, Tracie walked into a police station in Worcestershire covered in blood and with a black eye. She was 27 at the time.
Tracie played the part of a traumatised victim and told police she was the sole witness to her fiancé’s murder. Twenty-five-year-old Lee Harvey had been killed on a dark country lane. Tracie claimed he’d been subjected to a “terrifying road-rage attack”.
She described how she and Lee were “chased by another car driving aggressively”. Tracie then told police that both vehicles stopped, and the drivers confronted each other. After the driver backed away, the passenger approached and launched a “brutal attack” on Lee.
Tracie described the murderous stranger as having “staring eyes” before he vanished into the night, leaving her beaten on the road with her dying fiancé. But actually, none of that happened.
Filmmakers recreated the story in the upcoming Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews coming to Channel 5 in July 2026.
Did she kill her fiancé?
At the time, the investigation dominated the front pages of the newspapers – and the hunt for the killer. The public largely felt sympathy for Tracie, but that didn’t last long.
As detectives began to revisit timelines, cross-check statements, and test forensic evidence, doubt began to creep in. Small inconsistencies grew harder to ignore. Interviews shifted in tone, and the police slowly began to suspect Tracie. The woman who entered the station as a witness finds herself at the centre of suspicion.
Tracie Andrews did kill her fiancé Lee Harvey. In 1997, a jury convicted her of murdering Lee by stabbing him 42 times with a pen knife and inventing a fictional “road-rage” attacker to cover her tracks.
She maintained her innocence throughout her trial. However, she did later confess while in prison. Tracie claimed she’d murdered her fiancé Lee as “self-defence” during an argument.
Where is Tracie Andrews now?
A judge sentenced Tracie Andrews to life in prison for the murder of her fiancé, Lee Raymond Dean Harvey, in December 1996.
She served 14 years in prison before being released on parole in 2011. She was banned from travelling within 25 miles of her victim’s family without supervision, and now lives under a new identity.
Reports say she has significantly altered her appearance, undergoing £5,000 surgery. She is also said to have married a bouncer in 2017, had kids, and become a grandmother.
She is now 57 years old.
Who plays Tracie Andrews in Channel 5’s Under Suspicion?
Merseyside-born Emma Rigby, 36, portrays Tracie Andrews in the crime drama. She’s actually nine years older than Tracie was when she committed the heinous crime.
The actress started as a teenage actress in the early 00s, appearing in dramas such as Born and Bred, and Brookside. In 2005, she won the role that made her famous, playing Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks. Emma was just 15 at the time. She appeared in the Channel 4 soap between 2005 and 2010, and returned in 2024 for a short story arc.
Emma he later played Gemma Roscoe in the BBC One drama series Prisoners’ Wives, and as the Red Queen in the American fantasy-drama Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. More recently, Emma played Cyndi in the David Morrissey comedy Daddy Issues.
Read more: John Hannah plays ‘burned-out detective’ who seeks a ‘simpler life’ in Benidorm is Murder on Channel 5
